Designing Your Career Path

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Like many others, I am obsessed with the Netflix show, Tidying Up, with Marie Kondo. I love the simplicity of her process for organizing by asking people what ‘sparks joy.’ As we grow in our careers, we tend to lose that sense of joy or excitement we once had when we started out. We then hit a turning point in our careers and we go back to the basics of asking ourselves—what is it in my job that I like doing? What would I do even if I wasn’t paid? These questions allow us to start re-identifying the things that ‘spark joy.’

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When I work with clients, the first question I ask them is, “Where do you want to be this time next year in your career?” More often than not, they are unsure. I started seeing this pop up more and more which led me to want to help provide more resources and inspiration to help identify your ideal career path and opportunities. Here are a few tips to get you started:

  1. Journal: Start writing down the things that you enjoy doing at your job, the projects you were proud of, and the things that get you excited. Do not feel pressure that you have to do this all in one sitting, things will reveal themselves over time.

  2. Talk it out: Speak with trusted friends and colleagues to ask them what they feel are your best qualities and talents. Hearing from someone else usually helps to open us up to the ideas that they might present or reveal. We tend to self edit when we think of things or we are too hard on ourselves. You don’t have to do exactly what they say, but be open to the ideas the present.

  3. Reflect: What do YOU think are your best qualities or talents? Everyone else can tell you, but you must answer this one yourself. Really thing about not only your talents, but the things you enjoy doing as well. This may be morbid, but what helped me answer this question was asking, “What do I want people to remember me for when I am gone?” Really made me think of the person I wanted to be remembered as, which allowed me to think of that in context with my career.

The answer won’t come overnight. You must consistently work at journaling, uncovering, and revealing things to yourself. Here are a few more resources that we love that will help you on your quest to build your career path:

Once you are able to answer the question, “Where do you want to be this time next year in your career?”—you will then be able to fearlessly build your personal brand.